Question reference: S6W-11250
- Asked by: Foysol Choudhury, MSP for Lothian, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 29 September 2022
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Current status: Answered by Maree Todd on 24 October 2022
Question
To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered launching a public inquiry into the practice of unlawful organ and tissue retention at Scottish hospitals between 1970 and 2000.
Answer
The Scottish Government deemed that the most sensitive way of investigating previous post-mortem practice in Scotland was the Independent Review Group on the Retention of Organs at Post Mortem Examination which was established in September 2000 by the then Scottish Executive. The final report was published in November 2001.
In addition, Audit Scotland was instructed by the then Auditor General for Scotland to undertake an exercise to validate the information provided to the Review Group by NHS trusts (now known as NHS boards). The Audit Scotland report summarises the findings from the validation exercise and the systems review undertaken during the period November 2001 to January 2002.